1977 bill travers

as you can see by the fact that his hat is closer to the top of the photo window and his facsimile autograph is shifted to the right, bill travers' 1977 o-pee-chee card is a photo and an autograph placement variation.  here is travers' 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

travers had posted a 2.81 era in 1976, but in 1977, his era was 5.25. he made only 19 starts and had a record of 4-12, although he did manage to throw a shutout in his third start of the season.  travers missed all of june and most of july due to injury, and when he returned, the brewers called on him to start the back end of four august double headers.

i am guessing the bullpen was pretty depleted, because on august 14, 1977, in the second game of a double header (their third in 13 days), travers was allowed to pitch 7.2 innings in which he allowed 14 earned runs (a feat equaled most recently by vin mazzaro of the royals in 2011)!  his era jumped over an entire run that day!  he was 4-5 entering that game, but wound up losing it and 6 of his next 7 starts.

voici à vous, 1977 bill travers!

1977 darrell porter

darrell porter was traded in december of 1976 from the brewers to the royals.  that means we get a team variation, a photo variation, and almost certainly an autograph placement variation from o-pee-chee.  let's find out.  here is porter's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

yup - team, photo, and the facsimile auto is moved and unstacked.

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

porter enjoyed a successful first year with the royals, hitting 16 homers while driving in 60 runs and posting a batting average of .275.  he helped kansas city reach the playoffs, and hit .333 with 3 runs scored in the 5-game alcs against the yankees.  porter helped the royals get back to the postseason in 1978 and all the way to the world series in 1980, but his fall heroics were at their peak in 1982 when he won both the nlcs and world series mvp awards as a member of the champion saint louis cardinals.

voici à vous, 1977 darrell porter!

1977 robin yount

this one almost snuck past me.  there is an ever-so-slight left-to-right shift in the photo, and a slightly more noticeable upward shift in the facsimile autograph on robin yount's 1977 o-pee-chee card.  see if you agree - here is yount's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

1977 was a solid, but not spectacular year for yount.  of course, he was only 21 years old at the time.  he had a .288 batting average with 4 homers, 49 rbi, and 16 steals in 154 games played.  his third home run of the season came in the top of the 9th inning in a game against the mariners.  with the brew crew down 5-2 and two runners on base, yount launched a two-out, three-run homer to force extra innings.  milwaukee wound up winning the game on a 10th inning don money homer.

voici à vous, 1977 robin yount!

1977 cecil cooper

on the other side of the george scott trade made in late 1976, there was cecil cooper, who had his red sox attire transformed into brew crew gear on his 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

not quite as dramatic as the george scott card, but still nice.  it seems like it's been a long time since we've seen a team variation from the 1977 set.

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

cooper had his best season to date for the brewers in 1977.  for the first time, he played almost exclusively at first base, and appeared in 160 games.  he hit an even .300 with 20 homers and 78 rbi.  each playing for their new clubs, both scott and cooper homered in a game at fenway on may 20, 1977.  cooper also had a walk-off grand slam against the mariners in june of '77.

voici à vous, 1977 cecil cooper!

1977 sixto lezcano

sixto lezcano gets the slight photo cropping and facsimile autograph adjustment variations on his 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

i just now realized that sixto's real name was sixto.  i always thought it was a nickname.  anyway, he hit 21 homers for the brew crew in 1977 while driving in only 49 runs.  those are worse than greg brock numbers! brock is the guy i usually think of when home run totals are relatively close to rbi totals, probably thanks to his 14 home run/34 rbi season in 1984.  talk about a sophomore slump.  anyway, back to sixto - two of lezcano's homers accounted for both runs in a 2-1 win over don gullett and the yankees early in the season in the first multi-homer game of his career.  lezcano would wind up getting traded by the brewers after the 1980 season which was great for me because it kick started a number of team and text variations.

voici à vous, 1977 sixto lezcano!

1992 jesse orosco

jesse orosco was sent to the brewers by the indians in december of 1991 as part of a 'conditional deal'.  here is his 1992 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

the brewers were only orosco's fourth major league team and fifth organization (he was originally signed by the twins who traded him to the mets for jerry koosman in 1978).  he was 3-1 with a 3.23 era and a save in 59 games for the brew crew in 1992.  he pitched in milwaukee for a total of 3 seasons, averaging 52 appearances and 48 innings of work each season.  after he left the brewers, orosco suited up for 6 more teams, including the dodgers for the second time and the twins, his original organization.

voici à vous, 1992 jesse orosco!

1992 bruce ruffin

bruce ruffin was traded from the phillies to the brewers in december of 1992 for dale sveum.  here's his 1992 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

ruffin didn't fare so well in what would be his lone season in the american league.  he was 1-6 with a 6.67 era in 25 games.  he made 6 starts and had 1 complete game, although it was of the 8-inning variety.  ruffin signed as a free agent with the rockies after the 1992 season, and eventually became a full-time reliever and sometimes closer.

voici à vous, 1992 bruce ruffin!

1990 dave parker

dave parker became a brewer (yes, a brewer) when he signed a free agent deal in december of 1989. here's his 1990 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

he went on to have his last great season as a result. in milwaukee, the cobra hit 21 homers, drove in 92 rbi and hit .289. he won a silver slugger, finished 16th in the mvp voting, and made the all-star team for the final time of his career. the brewers traded parker the following spring to the angels for dante bichette, and parker split his final season in the majors between the halos and the blue jays.

voici à vous, 1990 dave parker!

1991 bill krueger

bill krueger joined the mariners as a free agent in december of 1990.  here is his 1991 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

krueger went 11-8 in 25 starts and 10 relief apperances for seattle in 1991, with his only complete game of the season being of the 8-inning variety. he became a free agent once again after the season, and joined the world champion twins for the 1992 campaign.


voici à vous, 1991 bill krueger!

1991 ed nunez

in december of 1990, ed nunez signed a free agent contract with the brewers. here is his 1991 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

nunez won 2 of his 3 decisions for the brew crew in 1991, but his era was up 3.5 runs over what he had posted in 1990. he pitched in 23 games and earned 8 saves in 25.1 innings of work. he returned to the brewers in 1992 and pitched better before he was traded to texas in may.

voici à vous, 1991 ed nunez!

1992 dale sveum

before he became generally regarded as a bad third base coach and now the cubs' manager, dale sveum played some third base for the brewers. he was traded by milwaukee in december of 1991 to the phillies for bruce ruffin. here is his 1992 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

sveum played in only 54 games for the phillies in 1992 before they sent him off to the white sox in august. it's understandable, as sveum was hitting .174 at the time of the trade. he managed to hit .219 for the chisox in the 40 games he played for them during the last couple of months of the season.

voici à vous, 1992 dale sveum!

1985 don sutton

don sutton was traded by the brewers to the a's in december of 1984. here's his fantastically colorful 1985 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

sutton had bounced back from a bad 1983 season in milwaukee to post a winning record in 1984 while getting his era back under 4. he began the 1985 season 20 wins shy of 300 for his career, and he had earned 13 of those missing victories for the a's when they traded him to the angels in august. in five starts for the halos over the last month of the season, sutton was 2-2, meaning that his 300th win would have to wait until 1986. still, despite all the moving around, sutton was able to continue his record streak of seasons with at least 100 strikeouts, becoming the first to do so in 20 straight campaigns.

sutton's 1985 topps traded card showed him as an athletic - it's too bad o-pee-chee didn't step in and create a variation for that set, too.

voici à vous, 1985 don sutton!

1992 ron robinson

ron robinson didn't get a card in the 1992 topps set, but o-pee-chee came through for the bearded one.  here is his 1992 o-pee-chee card:

and the back:

ron had the misfortune of being traded from the reds to the brewers during the reds' 1990 world championship season, so he missed out on the postseason.  he did pitch well for milwaukee, though, going 12-5 in 22 starts with 7 complete games and 2 shutouts, and he pitched well enough to win 4 more games but his offense let him down. unfortunately, robinson was injured in his first start of the 1991 season, and missed the rest of the campaign. topps dropped him from the 1992 checklist , and here we are. robinson did return to the mound for the brewers in 1992, but retired in july of that year as a result of his injuries.

here's the topps card o-pee-chee booted to make room for robinson, tom glavine's all-star card.  front:

and back:

voici à vous, 1992 ron robinson!